Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia.
~Kurt Vonnegut

"In the Ministry of Truth, Mr. Smith cleans up the facts, altering and destroying "every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance." Our current Ministry of Truth is cleaning up too...

Criterion and Process for Removing Old Content from www.ed.gov

" a justification for removing content is not just that it is out of date or a duplicate of other materials but that it runs counter to current administration priorities ... [and] does not reflect the priorities, philosophies or goals of the present administration."We indeed do well to remember Big Brother's slogan "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." It is as false then as it is now, and it is hoped that concerned citizens will demand that the purging of documents on www.ed.gov cease immediately

It has been estimated that, using these criteria, up to 13,000 documents of the total 50,000 items on www.ed.gov will be deleted unless they meet five criteria, two of which specifically involve support for administration priorities and initiatives and consistency with administration philosophy.

Left fringe should hold out for a real candidate with real ideas (and a real chance) via Working for Change

There's a current across the entire liberal Left exercising a powerful pull on people to unite to put out George Bush. This is understandable. Bush is awful, far more so than anticipated. Ashcroft is awful. Rumsfeld is awful. The Bush crowd has used 9-11 as the lever to put through a truly nightmarish political agenda both at home and overseas.

But does that mean that in the spring of 2003 everyone across the left-green-anti-Democratic Party spectrum has to hunker down and pledge support now for any and every Democratic candidate, like Dean whose economic program is wholeheartedly reactionary and whose foreign policy is only a few scant degrees athwart that of Bush; like John Kerry, who applauded the war? [more]

The symbolic rebirth of spring and visions of growth are masked by shadows of death. Though the sun is warm and wheel still turns, the face of war and the realities of death weigh heavily. Daily, I see the Iraq Body Count rise a little higher. I'm faced with the reality that my mom, at age 78, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Finding balance in a world where the power is shifted, the parent-child structure flipped, the power of democracy dying, and the simplicity of being threatened by invasive authority, is a daunting task. David Steinberg, whose erotic poetry is an expression of beauty, writes Comes Naturally. His latest:

It's hardly surprising that we are powerfully drawn to sex during death-ridden times such as these. If death is the ultimate expression of the limitation and powerlessness of the human condition, sex is just the opposite -- the ultimate expression of human expansiveness and personal power.

When there are so many arenas in which we feel afraid, where we are lacking the power to make the world be what we want it to be, it becomes especially important that we affirm and exercise the real power we still hold. Sex is one way to do that. The right and ability to be deeply sexual in satisfying ways is a profound source of personal empowerment. That's why so many governments and religious institutions try to control that most personal part of our lives, and God knows their antisexual efforts do take a toll on us. But, despite the debilitating effects of sex-repressive attitudes and prohibitions, most of us retain the ability to turn to sex as a way of reminding ourselves that we are vibrant, effectual, repositories of the power of life.

Each time we have sex in meaningful ways we make that statement -- to ourselves and to the world outside of ourselves. [more]

The EPA announced last week that Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (Des Moines, Iowa), had paid a $72,000 fine in March. The penalty was imposed after the company had failed to promptly report test data showing that a gene engineered to protect against corn rootworm had contaminated other experimental plants in an adjacent field at the company's isolated research facility in Kauai, Hawaii

Noting recent mishaps with ProdiGene and StarLink, the report identifies gaps in an inconsistent regulatory framework involving APHIS, EPA, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "The time is ripe to address these issues — before a crisis occurs," author Michael Taylor said.

The sour joke is: "Of course we know the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction. We have the receipts." At this point, the administration would probably be delighted if it could find the WMDs the Reagan administration gave Saddam Hussein. At least it could point to some WMDs.

Fundamentalism is both a religious phenomenon, a political movement, and a state of consciousness. It is characterised by profound dissatisfaction about society, preoccupation with religious beliefs, expectation of imminent apocalypse, assumption of a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, concretisation of this in terms of actual groups of human beings, and the claim of divine authority to justify violence against the perceived enemies. Like other totalitarian worldviews such as fascism, Stalinism, and neo-liberalism, it claims absolute righteousness for its own beliefs: "God is on our side!" Throughout the millennia, fundamentalism has appeared in many forms including Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other varieties, and has led to genocides, crusades, jihads, witch-hunts, tortures, inquisitions, deportations, pogroms, holocausts, terrorist attacks, revolutions, fatwas, coups d'état, human rights violations, collective suicides, and wars.

Fundamentalism is nothing new, but it is lately attracting so many adherents that it has become a global issue. Consider the Christian variety. In the USA, for example, Presidents Reagan and Bush would not have been elected without the backing of the Christian fundamentalist voting block; their advocates now sit on most school boards, where they censor the curriculum and oblige educational textbook publishers to re-write schoolbooks in order to avoid blacklisting and economic boycott.

Lisa at RuminateThis found a couple links at Daily Kos yesterday that reek of hypocrisy. I found the same at the Dean Blog yesterday, myself. annatopia has some further words on that particular 'blame game'. In Lisa's words "rabid Dean supporters get all thirty shades of bent out of shape over Dems criticizing one another", yet, ask Anna, they were right in the midst of it!

It seems that at Kos there is a call for Democratic candidates to stop sniping at each other. Lisa suggests LETTING THE FUR FLY. I fully agree with Lisa, NOW is the time to iron out the kinks. This is the time for debate among the candidates, this is the time to get a feel for the Democratic agenda since it's still a floundering work-in-progress. Solidify, bicker, point out faults and defend ideas, because the Republicans will pull out all stops. It's good experience and it will ultimately bring a more unified agenda among the Democrats, as a whole.

Now is also a time for the general population to decide what they want and to help form that agenda. It is no longer a time for placing blame and bickering. If the voters want the sniping to stop, then let them set the example.

I see a tendency to berate a progressive view and work toward the center. I think that is a huge mistake right now. We need to aim high! We need to give progressives like Kucinich a chance to be heard and, perhaps, by a strong showing in early primaries,a more progressive path than we thought possible can be forged. The second link Lisa found at Kos was disturbing. It was a clear blacklisting based on a very sketchy 30 year old article. Someone didn't do their homework before making that call. I'll try to get back later with more about that particular dig.

Did the news media feel that it was unpatriotic to question the administration's credibility? Some strange things certainly happened. For example, in September Mr. Bush cited an International Atomic Energy Agency report that he said showed that Saddam was only months from having nuclear weapons. "I don't know what more evidence we need," he said. In fact, the report said no such thing -- and for a few hours the lead story on MSNBC's Web site bore the headline "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq." Then the story vanished -- not just from the top of the page, but from the site.

Thanks to this pattern of loud assertions and muted or suppressed retractions, the American public probably believes that we went to war to avert an immediate threat -- just as it believes that Saddam had something to do with Sept. 11.

Now it's true that the war removed an evil tyrant. But a democracy's decisions, right or wrong, are supposed to take place with the informed consent of its citizens. That didn't happen this time. And we are a democracy -- aren't we?

I'm taking a break today, be back late, or tomorrow. I need to rake leaves, dig in some dirt, watch some earthworms, and breathe some air (fresh or not). Here is some fresh reading for those of you stuck inside:

Project For A New Century of Freedom is writing about Instant Runoff Voting (!!) think exciting possibilities, and it's NOT just in USA Today..he gives further links. He's also writing about Censorship and Secrecy, which seems to be a much larger epidemic than SARS, eh?
My personal favorite from his page today seems to extend beautifully what I was trying to lead into yesterday, the responsibility to get reliable information out, the repetition needed to uncover the secrecy, the propaganda, the deceptions. He says in part;

This is my story, and my reason for being here. I'm glad I found the blogosphere, and believe our responsibility to be great. What responsibility you may ask? To bring the wide amount of information and news available on the Internet into focus and to make it accessible. Made-to-order global news filtering. Not to mention opinion. And I firmly believe this will impact the mainstream media themselves. This war in Iraq is a test case for a new policy of sharing information and dissent, and not just for demonstrating America's new national security strategy. more

More reading here:
The Daily Dystopian has a unique feature: Today in Dystopian History. Because my history education is lacking, I really appreciate reading that daily.
There are some excellent links about depleted uranium and the responsibility that Britian is taking upon themselves to at least test their servicemen and women for traces of DU. Of course, the US is ignoring this aspect, because to do so would be an admission that DU causes health and environmental problems. Go see how safe you think our troops are from future health problems.

by the ever-resourceful Carla BinionExpanding on my previous entry, I find:

Huxley quotes Hitler's statement that "all propaganda must be confined to a few bare necessities and then must be expressed in a few stereotyped formulas . . . Only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea upon the memory of a crowd." Bush has delivered the stereotyped formulas "You're either with us or with the terrorists;" "the oceans can't protect us;" and Saddam is connected with "al Qaeda," using constant repetition.

Carla has provided us with an excellent article and an amazing collection of resources. These resources could be used by the mainstram media in an effort to rectify their hasty shortsightedness. If the mainstream doesn't feel inclined to admit they were falling down on the job, then, through repetition, someone must. Read her article, use her resources, wash, rinse and repeat.

I find myself not wanting to read articles of revelations about the lies we've been told and the way public opinion was formed because I watched it unfold. To me, and probably most people who read this weblog, it is old news. The very fact that it is now beginning to hit the mainstream media, slams me with the realization that for the majority of US citizens, this is all new. It was never even whispered in the media outlets they relied upon. Are they paying attention now? If they are, I wonder how they feel. Do they care, or was it worth it to squander an exhibition of power, aggressively invade another country and murder innocent people?

Although the news is old to me, my thoughts wander toward the bigger picture, the picture of ill-informed citizens who just may be open to hearing the details. The Democrats have not, to date, been very adept at exposing the lies, or calling for investigation of the deceptions. The only way this will change is to get the information to the citizens and have them demand investigation. I'm not sure how to get that information to the receptive ones.
A friend of mine said, to the effect, that my weblog was 'preaching to the converted'. I think that's true. I find myself drawn to like-minded weblogs.

The power of weblogs as an information tool can't be denied. The information is tidy and available. The availability, I suppose, is the major reason I will continue to link to articles that may be old news to me. Repetition is a way of learning, especially in an age of information overload. Repetition on weblogs, in the news, on email lists, by word of mouth....we have to go for it. The issue of deception and lies being a means to form public opinion is an issue we can't afford to drop the ball on! Any mention in the mainstream media bears repeating!

Instead of voting for just one candidate, voters rank their preferences for candidates from first to last. If no one receives a majority of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and the second choices from those ballots are added to the totals for the remaining candidates. The process continues until one candidate emerges with a majority. Ireland and Australia have used the system in national elections, and it has been adopted in parts of Great Britain.

Now, the idea is starting to catch on in the USA. Louisiana residents who vote from overseas by absentee ballot already have that option. San Francisco will start using instant runoffs next year and several other municipalities, largely in the West, are preparing to go the same route.

however talented some such psychologists might be, they're ultimately interpreting the tea-leaf reading of their patients. The more artistic among them might draft insightful psychological portraits, but they're more like Impressionist painters than digital photographers. And, after all, how many great masters can there be?

Here is a Washington Post article, dated today, that questions mass isolation/quarantine, civil liberites, and the laws as they stand. For further reference and mind candy you might want to read this post from April 6th.

I do think the SARS scare is being used as a 'social experiment' of sorts. Perhaps we should look at it as a 'disastor recovery' drill. We need to have effective means of communication, and ways to contain threats without needlessly restricting mobility or liberties. If we can look at it as a drill, it might not cause so much hysteria. If the media can show responsibility and not sensationalise it, we might have a better chance of ironing out acceptable procedures. As it stands now, the threat is blown completely out of proportion by the unknowns and by sensationalism. We can't possibly craft proper procedures with hysterical chaotic data.

The Salt River Project, an Arizona-based public utility, wants to build a massive coal stripmine just 11 miles northeast of the lake. Edward Wemytewa, a Zuni Cultural Area Wetlands Project Manager, states simply that "they will be pumping 85 gallons of water per minute from the same aquifer that feeds the Zuni Salt Lake."

I really don't know what to write about this. I'm glad it's finally come out in the media, but I am extremely angry that this was not touched on more before the US invaded another country. Sure, the blog world and the anti-war protesters pointed it out, but we are not FOX news or Rush Limbaugh and we don't blare obnoxiously into everyone's lives on an hourly basis crafting opinion of those less inclined to think and analyze.
Some obviously think that muscle flexing is noble, but, there is a difference between flexing muscle and killing innocent people especially when it goes against world opinion.

I do not want a leader who flaunts his muscle (flaccid though it may be) in my face or in the world's face. This is blatant exhibitionism which did irreparable harm. Emphasizing a 'possibility' and emphasizing a connection to Sept 11 that did not exist, is a lie. Simple.

I want responsible media. I want impeachment proceedings to begin. I want war crimes investigated and prosecuted. Simple.

Aren't we such a proud nation?? We're evolving well as a species. Symbolic madness.

The United States has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs, the Energy Department said Tuesday.

The announcement marks an important symbolic and operational milestone in rebuilding the nation's nuclear weapons complex, which began a long retrenchment in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended and the toll of environmental damage from bomb production became known

the government is now spending about $6 billion annually on the nuclear weapons complex, 50 percent more than it did during the Cold War.

Wow! I feel like I've discovered something richer than oil with refreshing depth. I can only imagine the possibilities and the healing this country would realise if this man's vision could lead us away from our current shallow misdirected ills. A Second Renaissance is a speech delivered on Sept 14, 2002 at The Redwood Sequoia Congress University of California Berkeley, California by Dennis Kucinich:

Imagine if we could look our nation with the same daring with which our founders gazed. Imagine if we could regain the capacity of spirit which animated freedom of speech, the right to assemble, the right to vote, freedom from fear, freedom from want. I tell you there is another America out there. It is ready to be called forward. It is the America of our dreams. It is the America of the flag full of Stars. It is the America which is in our hearts and we can make it the heart of the world.

and this wonderfully inspiring speech Spirit and Stardust given at Praxis Peace Institute Conference Dubrovnik, Croatia on June 9, 2002, also by Dennis Kucinich:

We begin as a perfect union of matter and spirit. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from sky and earth. In our outstretched hands we can feel the energy of the universe. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from water, which nourishes and sanctifies life. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from the primal fire, the pulsating heart of creation. We experience the wonder of life multidimensional and transcendent. We extend our hands upwards and we are showered with abundance. We ask and we receive. A universe of plenty flows to us, through us. It is in us. We become filled with endless possibilities.

We need to remember where we came from; to know that we are one. To understand that we are of an undivided whole: race, color, nationality, creed, gender are beams of light, refracted through one great prism. We begin as perfect and journey through life to become more perfect in the singularity of "I" and in the multiplicity of "we"; a more perfect union of matter and spirit. - - This is human striving. This is where, in Shelley's words, " . . . hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates." This is what Browning spoke of: Our 'reach exceeding [our] grasp'. This is a search for heaven within, a quest for our eternal home.

Of course I don't expect the DOD to have these figures any more than I expect them to find WMD. I'm just curious how the evasion tactics work here.

WASHINGTON - April 21 - In a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) requested that the Department of Defense release the total number of Iraqi casualties incurred in the war in Iraq.

Kucinich, Ranking Member on the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations stated in the letter:

"Now that the combat phase of the war has ended, it is critical that the full extent of losses be calculated. While it may be difficult to account for the exact number of Iraqi combatants killed in battle, the number of Iraqi civilians killed and injured in the conflict should be released."

"It is important that this information be released," stated Kucinich today after sending the letter. "The United States owes it to the people of Iraq and the world community to make this information public."

A Republican group whose officials include former President Gerald R. Ford and Mary Cheney, the daughter of the vice president, demanded today that Senator Rick Santorum apologize to gays for his remarks equating homosexuality with bigamy and incest.

Yes, I know he doesn't have the name recognition, but don't write him off. Keep checking him out! Dennis Kucinich has drive, influence, a voice and good ideas. His webpage only lacks a weblog! More about him here. Follows is an excerpt from NY Times:

"I'm used to fighting for lost causes," he said in an interview. "I am used to doing things that other people say are impossible. I have learned throughout my whole life that you can turn it around."

Mr. Kucinich, known to some colleagues as Dennis the Menace for his energetic doggedness and somewhat impish looks, is co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus, which represents the left-most reaches of the House Democratic membership. He is a champion of universal health care, wants to return the retirement age for full Social Security benefits to 65 and would repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he says has sapped the nation of millions of jobs.

Some who know him say his chief reason for running is to cement a role as national leader of the left. But he insists that he is serious about being president, and says the driving force behind his candidacy is his outrage at the war against Iraq and the prospect of future wars he fears President Bush will wage.

"The administration's illegal attack on Iraq is not just about Iraq," he said. "It is about Iran, it is about North Korea, it is about Libya, perhaps it is about Syria."

Mr. Kucinich credits himself for helping inspire a majority of House Democrats, 126, to vote last fall against the resolution authorizing Mr. Bush to use force in Iraq. Unlike many of his colleagues, he continued to voice opposition once the conflict began. "It is not logical to say you oppose the war and once the war started, you support it," he said.

He is also re-emphasizing his argument that the nation's military buildup, coupled with the president's push for tax cuts, is draining money that could be used for critical domestic programs. And this month he reintroduced his proposal to create a cabinet-level Department of Peace more

"Gingrich and company should look at themselves in the mirror," Kupchan said. "If you ask who is it who has set most of the world against the United States, it's not the (State) Department; it's the Pentagon and the neo-cons."

Gingrich's call for "bold dramatic change at the State Department" does, however, offer a preview of the ambitions of the neo-conservatives and their allies within the administration. "Calls for State Department reform are really a veiled way of trying to make permanent changes that would leave a certain ideological strain that could be called 'neo-imperial' in control not just of the Pentagon but of other parts of the government as well," Kupchan said.

Smoky Fog of Dreams (3:00am) (craig baker)
I am reduced to fractured memories
Scattered over time
Like a statue brought to ash and dust
Granite turned to lime
In the middle of the night
I lay upon my couch
And smoke a cigarette
If only regrets were worth nothing
But a dollar and a damn
I could afford forgetfulness
But as it is the memories
Are all that's within my means
And the smoky fog of dreams
And the moon of truth
Through Venetian blinds
Like striped light bars
Of an imprisoned mind
The light of a billion stars
Cannot permeate
But one lonely moon
Doth illuminate
Through striped light bars
This smoky fog of dreams.

Good discussion in this salon article: (premium)
several thinking points from different perspectives:

"If Ralph runs again and tips it for Bush, it would not only be a worldwide tragedy, the prospect of building the Green Party would be radically doomed."

"I've never been so disgusted in my life as seeing how the Democrats contributed to going to war in Iraq," says Medea Benjamin. "They simply capitulated, with the leadership telling the party that they should vote for Bush's war resolution to get the whole Iraq thing behind them. It was a repeat of the Florida debacle, where the Gore campaign refused to let their supporters take to the streets."

"Bush has certainly given me pause; in fact I think Greens everywhere are thinking about it." But in the end, she (Robinson) says, it's more important to build the party than to defeat Bush"

"At this stage, when we're at war in Iraq and who knows where next, I'm more passionate about getting Bush out of office than in getting another 3 percent of the vote for the Greens."

"There is something self-defeating about the Democrats' refusal to open a dialogue with the Green Party. While some lower-level discussions between Greens and lefty Democrats have taken place, reconciliation has never become a priority of party leaders, who seem to have written off their left flank as irrelevant."

Breastfeeding and changing diapers can bring about legal charges for terrorist action against a U.S. citizen in international airspace while on an American flight during a time of war.

What did the American male passenger think they were - weapons of mass distraction?

Holy cow. After all, the U.S. is the same country that brought us the cheesy search for America's hottest person, made the semi-pornographic Maxim magazine a runaway success and recently became home to the niche airline Hooters. Named for the (in)famous restaurant chain, each flight features two well-endowed girls in tight T-shirts who give a whole new meaning to the concept of twin-engine props - and empty calories.

The debate will be held Saturday night, May 3, from 8:30-10:00 pm EDT at the Longstreet Theater on the campus of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. The debate will be made available to C-SPAN, South Carolina Educational Television and ABC network affiliates around the country.

even as the Feds spend $20 billion a year on the drug war, scientists in the US and abroad have begun studying the potential benefits of X, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms. Here's a look at the whys behind the highs.

"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."

Recent writers have speculated that this passage was in reference to flying saucers. That is because they look at this passage physically. This ascension of Elijah like the ascension of Christ in the cloud into heaven is the "withdrawal" from the external or physical world, to be the inmost reality of all. This can be referred to as ecstasy, rapture, or transport and is a result of the Holy Spirit. Ecstasy, rapture, or transport therefor agree in designating a feeling or state of intense, often extreme mental and emotional exaltation. Rapture is defined as ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy. Some of the synonyms of rapture are bliss, beatitude, transport, and exultation. The true rapture is therefore one in which one is spiritually transported to the heavens. Don't expect to float up into the sky.

It's hard to imagine darker days for achieving a progressive legislative agenda! We are lost, all of us -- Greens and Progressive Democrats -- who long for universal health care, a living wage and dignified employment, alternatives to a prison and war state, basic environmental standards, equitable economic policies, control over rampant corporations, on and on. No one has a clue anymore how any of it might be achieved. All that remains is a foreboding sense that we are failing even on the defensive, that tomorrow will be worse than today. Our essentially common progressive agenda withers on the vine, and snakes have run of the garden.

If we want to continue in this direction, we need not change a thing. But if we want a different future, we have to start looking at the world in entirely different ways. We need a new math -- because right now the numbers are crunching US!

Progressives have always wielded the best ideas and the best activists. We should be leading this country to a better future, as did our predecessors.

The progressive voice and vision shaped this country -- but only when we've been united.

Neither Greens nor Prog Dems can deliver the progressive agenda on our own. And we will certainly never do it so long as we are at each other's throats!

Greens are growing -- but nowhere near fast enough. Prog Dems are finally demanding a voice in your party -- but with little reason to believe it will turn an electoral tide.

Like the greedy monkey, with our fists desperately stuck through the bars, we thwart ourselves by insisting either of us alone can hold that magic 51 percent. Even together it will be very hard to hold!

This is the Attorney General of the US? He doesn't know to abide by a gag order? Fair trial be damned. Constitution be damned.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen on Friday denied a defense request for a mistrial. But he scolded government lawyers for trying to link the men on trial to the former suspect and said Ashcroft should have understood that he is covered by a gag order in the case.

Defense lawyers argued that the remarks were at least the second time Ashcroft had violated Rosen's gag order since the investigation of their clients began. The judge said he would decide after the trial whether to consider a request to have Ashcroft explain his actions.

Reedy said it's possible the Washtenaw County resident might have something besides SARS but added that given the person's exposure to a relative in Asia who was hospitalized with SARS, health officials are confident that it's a positive case.

I've not quite known where to focus lately, so my blog has been a mix of randomness as I take a short breather from war, and politics. It hasn't stopped me from reading offerings from others however, trying to grasp my own thoughts and voice. I'd like to direct you to Bob's Links and Rants and his entire April 18th entries. (scroll)
He quotes Vonnegut quoting a fictional character Campbell, from Slaughterhouse 5, and asks for input. Check it out and give him feedback!
He also has a poem: The Dimwit Pride of Bushwar Two which is much more a constructive attempt at expessing anger than anything I would write at the moment. (Mine would be so bitter I'd run you off!). He also links to a wonderful article written by a 14 yr old boy; Young Voices: U.S. Can't Declare War a Victory

Squaw Peak in north-central Phoenix will be renamed Piestewa Peak.
The State Board on Geographic and Historic Names waived its five-year waiting period and approved the change by a 5-1 vote Thursday before a cheering crowd after a four-hour hearing.
The board sided with dozens of supporters who said that the word "Squaw" is offensive and that the mountain should be renamed after Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, pronounced py-ESS-tuh-wah. The Hopi from Tuba City was the first female American Indian soldier to be killed in combat.

A naturally fluorescent compound inside the immune system's neutrophil cell enabled Howard Petty to collect a series of 11 high-speed images that depict the wave-like movement of chemical reactions within the cell.

DNA from the animals and plants that populated Siberia and Alaska up to 395,000 years ago has been recovered from specks of permafrost.

The discovery of these genetic fragments - by far the oldest DNA sequences yet authenticated - will give scientists unprecedented power to reconstruct ancient ecosystems and track them through time. The work has already shed new light on the mysterious extinction of the region's large mammals.

As if we didn't know this, but it still makes me sick watching it happen. (I'm even linking to a MoonieTimes article out of sheer frustration)

The talk over war with Syria increasingly resembles a spring rerun of the debate over war with Iraq, with virtually the same cast of characters and plot.
Neoconservative Richard Perle, a leading hawk in the Iraq debate, yesterday called for Congress to pass a "Syrian Liberation Act" modeled on the 1998 law that made regime change in Baghdad official U.S. policy.
"There are many ways to fight these battles," Mr. Perle, a civilian adviser to the Pentagon, told a forum at the American Enterprise Institute.
"I would hope that Congress would take a look at helping those who want to free Syria from the tyrannical rule of the Ba'ath Party," the secular ruling party dominated by Syrian President Bashir Assad, Mr. Perle said.
via American Samizdat

Because I'm getting referrers looking for info on SARS in Michigan, I've included what I was able to find in a quick search:

ann arbor -- State and federal health officials say today that a patient at the University of Michigan Hospital suspected of having severe acute respiratory syndrome does not have SARS.

(Lansing-AP, April 17, 2003, 8:40 a.m.) A Washtenaw County adult is suspected of having a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome. That's according to a statement released today by the state Department of Community Health.

Dr. Clegg says SARS could be a problem but there's something else you need to worry about here in southwest Michigan. "West Nile is guaranteed to comeback this summer when mosquitos come out again.

"Fear of SARS is more of a problem than SARS now, as far as international business is concerned," says Linda Lim, a professor of corporate strategy and international business at the University of Michigan Business School

It's not easy to stand up to the blasts of the Wurlitzer machine, which is so wonderfully adept at spinning disinformation, disseminating it to the public, and quashing rational discussion. So here are the telltale signs you are being buffaloed, plus tips on how to help others talk back, too.

After reading the Thom Hartmann article, When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History, I found the parallels intriguing. I found Bush/Hitler Links to be quite informative. I was unaware of many of the parallels and some seemed too eerie to believe. As my right-wing aquaintance said about the Thom Hartmann article, "someone went to a lot of trouble to prove a point". The Bush/Hitler links page is an extension of that statement.

Michigan will be an early primary. It could help set the stage. I'm ever-so-slightly encouraged.

"People are fearful," Kucinich says. "My candidacy steps forward and says, 'Hey, stop! Hold it!' We're losing what's dear to our country. We have a foreign policy that's setting the stage for new wars. We're talking about first use of nuclear weapons. We still have chemical and biological weapons, which disqualifies us from the chemical and biological weapons treaty. The polar ice caps are still melting. Islands in the Pacific are seeing the water rising. Meteorological changes suggest that global climate change is here to stay. The Kyoto climate change treaty is urgent. The U.S. has to recognize the interconnectedness, interdependence, of the world. We're not doing it. I'm looking at the entire structure of our society and saying, how can government be relevant?"
...Says Kucinich: "If I'm able to win some early primaries I'll be able to move these domestic concerns right to the top of the campaign concerns for the party. . . . FDR said in '33 we have nothing to fear but fear itself. We can create a new world. It's possible." more

My host server has been extremely slow the past few days. I apologize. They are replacing a disk and are in the process of synching it. Hopefully, in a few hours, this page will be functioning correctly again.

I want to point to two articles in particular, that have made an impact, one on me, and the other, if only transitory impact, on an avowed conservative aquaintance.
Robert Parry's insightful Bush's Alderaan put my thoughts into overload, and has me questioning whether I even want to stick around and fight. So much has been lost. Is it retrievable? I find myself wishing that I had taken a job offered a few months ago, for a two week contract in Ottawa. I feel so alone when I read:

Yet the apparent enthusiasm of the American people for the war in Iraq – and their lightly considered acquiescence to this crossover to imperial power – have sent a chilling message to the rest of the world. That message is that the American people and their increasingly enfeebled democratic process will not serve as a check on George W. Bush.

...Bush has orchestrated a fundamental change in the historic American spirit. Since the days of the Revolutionary War, Americans have rooted for the underdog. But now, apparently by wide majorities, the American people are cheering as U.S. troops mow down Iraqi soldiers today like British imperial forces used modern rifles to cut down Zulu tribesmen fighting with spears a century ago.

This change in spirit has been picked up in recent polls, as Americans show little regard for international law – except when it’s needed to protect U.S. POWs – and care little about the deaths of Iraqis. Many respondents saw no problem in the possibility that Bush had misled the nation in justifying the war.

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History by Thom Hartmann, begins leading the reader where he knows he's going, but the journey is incredible. My right-wing aquaintance wrote back.."Oh Christ! Some people will go to any lengths to prove a point. It would take me 50 years to find all that!" The parallel of two men is persuasive.
Here's a small example:

The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.
It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)

But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

Rumsfeld submits report calling for sweeping changes in military. Among the changes:

Remove limits on the size of the staff in the defense secretary's office;

Streamline the defense secretary's ability to spend money on the missile defense program;

Eliminate the requirement for the Defense Department to make periodic reports to Congress on a host of issues (the list covers about 100 pages), including the state of the B-1 bomber, which Rumsfeld contends has proved itself in combat.

...grief has the place in Shiite culture that sex has in North American culture. It is the allowed lushness, the heart of the heartless world, what teenagers want and adults revel in, the stuff with which the culture covers its harsh truths.
...Humankind has always known that one animal thing opposes the other animal thing. Fucking vs. killing. Orgasm -- le petit mort -- vs. death.
...Sex can create love from the pleasure given each other and from allowing ourselves to be known, and knowing. And love enables us to imagine -- to change places -- to know in flashes of empathy what it is like to be not ourselves but the other.
...The heart of love is the imagining of others, and the imagination doesn't need a bed. Every version of love is a serious impediment to war because it is inquisitive, and the better the mind forms a picture of the other, the harder it is to destroy the other.

Arizona Governor Pushes to Rename Peak for Fallen Soldier, but Says One Official Blocking Plan
The official blocking this plan is one piece of work! He calls wholesale name changes an atrocity. This guy can't be fired from his volunteer position and was appointed to his position by the governor. I think he needs to pull his head out yesterday. This should be a no-brainer.

The governor is lobbying to rename one of Phoenix's prominent mountain peaks in honor of an American Indian woman killed in the war, and she is calling for the resignation of a state official who has threatened to block the plan.

The mountain is known as Squaw Peak, a controversial name that many American Indians find offensive and have been trying to change for years. Gov. Janet Napolitano wants it renamed Piestewa peak, for Pfc. Lori Piestewa.
"This would be a positive, healing way to end this long debate about what is a derogatory word for Native Americans," Taylor said.

Man-made features can be named even after the living, but state and federal policies on geographic titles say there must be a five-year waiting period after a person's death before the name can be used. Napolitano said the state board has the authority to waive the waiting period and there's no reason to wait once she submits the petition.
Thanks for the link Mark!

I was sure feeling much safer when I knew UN inspectors and the IAEA were in charge of keeping this sanctioned uranium depository secure. Seals were in place for a reason, and knowing that 19-20 year old marines, under battle stress, with limited understanding of implications and limited experience, broke those seals, after the site had been unguarded for days, in a climate of looting and mayhem, somehow gives me less pause for comfort.

I find this incompetent, irresponsible behaviour on the part of an invading country who is invading on the pretense of finding and securing WMD.
A priority to secure the oil wells was established before the war, yet after reading the accounts in the preceeding articles, it appears the marines on the ground had very limited knowledge of this site although it was clearly on record as housing uranium.

I have to ask, in a very cynical tone, as a concerned inhabitant of this earth, "Was this site left unguarded for days intentionally in the hopes that in the confusion it would be looted and the uranium would enter the terrorist market, thereby providing further pretense for action, or is this simply lack of responsibility, understanding and twisted priorities?"

On the face of it, Piestewa, from the Hopi tribe, does not fit the bill for the all-American war hero or heroine. She was a single mother of two who left her four-year-old son, Brandon, and three-year-old daughter, Carla, with her parents who live in a trailer in Tuba City, Arizona while she went to fight in the Middle East. But, in more ways than one, hers is the other American face of this war, fought by a military whose ranks have been swelled by poor, non-white women. A volunteer army comprising recruits who, whatever their patriotic credentials, have few other choices.
(...)
Moreover, the army's sensitivity to native American culture leaves much to be desired, says Johnson. "They still talk about 'going into Indian country', meaning enemy territory," he says. They continue to dwell on the stereotype of native Americans as warriors, giving their missiles names like Apache and Tomahawk. "On the one hand they think of us as fierce warriors and on the other they refer to us as being hostile to American interests."

Richard Perle, one of the chief U.S. ideologists behind the war to oust Saddam Hussein, warned Friday that the United States would be compelled to act if it discovered that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been concealed in Syria.

Perle said that if the Bush administration were to learn that Syria had taken possession of such Iraqi weapons, "I'm quite sure that we would have to respond to that."

"It would be an act of such foolishness on Syria's part," he continued, "that it would raise the question of whether Syria could be reasoned with. But I suppose our first approach would be to demand that the Syrians terminate that threat by turning over anything they have come to possess, and failing that I don't think anyone would rule out the use of any of our full range of capabilities."

In an interview with editors of the International Herald Tribune, Perle said that the threat posed by terrorists he described as "feverishly" looking for weapons to kill as many Americans as possible obliged the United States to follow a strategy of preemptive war in its own defense. more

We're watching more madness unfold before our eyes. Are we only going to be able to watch, identifying methods of propaganda and sitting helplessly by?
I've tried debating with some above average, fairly politically aware people, who I know under normal circumstances could never sit idly, yet it's happening.
The information is overwhelming and people don't want to take the time to explore it because it will upset their small world of comfort.
I'm including the text of an email I received after attempting to explain PNAC to someone. Her email was in response to an addendum of links I sent. It appears she ignored the first set of links I sent which included the newamericancentury website, a Nightline transcript and an NPR interview. Some of her remarks may be of value regarding how the information is presented for people who may be inclined to present it. I have replied to her email, making the information very simple, by directing her to the 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' .pdf document asking her to read pages 11-13 out of the 90 page document. (the highlighted mission in the gray table). I have yet to get a response. I do think she has some valid points regarding the use of certain 'alarmist' wording. her response:

I glanced at the links you sent. I don't consider some of the words in the pieces, like "exposing" and "frightening" and "sobering" and "plotted", to be words associated with balanced, respectable reporting. I think liberal paranoia is as objectionable as conservative paranoia.
You listed a number of sites but you didn't list newamericancentury.org, which is apparently the official website for the Project For A New American Century. It's not some big, scary, secret organization. They're very open about their conservative ideals and objectives. I read their mission statement along with the list of members and although I doubt that I'd agree with most of what they have to say, I'm certainly not willing to jump onto some sort of paranoid condemnation bandwagon.

The members of PNAC have certain current LIMITED power, limited power that may or may not even be there 2 years from now. Personally, I think the average American citizen is much more at risk, as a result of conservative judges being nominated by the White House. Hopefully Congressional Democrats..and a few enlightened Republicans ..will reject the nominees.

Esteemed comic book author, Surrealist writer, and self-professed "Manchurian Candidate" with eerie links to the JFK assassination, T Casey Brennan is, in the words of David Ferrie, "a riddle, wrapped in a question, locked inside an enigma."

I'm T. Casey Brennan, Warren comics writer from the 1970s, listed in the 1998 Who's Who in America. In 1996, I wrote Conjurella, which I'm not sure is a dream or a repressed memory. You can read Conjurella, and appending notes at the T. Casey Brennan ArchivesConjurella is about a hypnotist I knew as a little boy. Dr. E of Hopeville in the account is actually J.H. Earnshaw, D.O., of Port Hope, Michigan. "Conjurella" is actually my late aunt, Bonnie Goodrich. "Kathy Malarkey" is actually Katherine Schlorke. Conjurella alleges that I was kidnapped by Dr. Earnshaw and David Ferrie, and forced to initiate the shooting from the Texas School Book Depository Building.

Recently, I wrote Conjurella Fever, Transcending Time and MK-ULTRA, which is not a dream or a repressed memory at all. It deals primarily with my life at a Berkeley commune in the mid-1980s, when one of their members attempted to kill Charles Manson in prison.

"As real-life experience is increasingly replaced by the mediated 'experience' of television-viewing, it becomes easy for politicians and market-researchers of all sorts to rely on a base of mediated mass experience that can be evoked by appropriate triggers. The TV 'world' becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the mass mind takes shape, its participants acting according to media-derived impulses and believing them to be their own personal volition arising out of their own desires and needs. In such a situation, whoever controls the screen controls the future, the past, and the present."

"It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison, and yet not free - to be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within the nation, wants him to think,feel and act.

The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own
initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective."

An extraordinary communication from the United States to UN representatives around the world has been leaked to Greenpeace. In it, the United States warns that the simple act of support for a General Assembly meeting to discuss the war will be considered "unhelpful and directed against the United States." They further threaten that invoking the Uniting for Peace resolution will be "harmful to the UN."

Yesterday, a blogger ( http://www.krempasky.com/blog/ ) linked to several blogs participating in the Stand Down nowarblog, looking for signs that pro-peace people were admitting that they had been proven wrong. He didn't find any.
Liberal Oasis asks, in part:

Well, what is it exactly that we all have been proven wrong about?

-- That this war was not about disarmament, but about establishing Pax Americana on the backs of dead Arabs, Muslims and US troops?

-- That this war wouldn’t end with Iraq, and could soon lead to more misguided wars with neighboring countries?

-- That invasion and occupation will keep our troops in harm’s way for an indefinite period of time, while fostering more terrorism against America?

-- That the Bush Administration has no interest in real democracy, and will ensure a government is created that will serve Bush Inc.’s interests?

-- That the policy of pre-emptive war may destabilize the world as other nations adopt it?

-- That there was a way to disarm Saddam Hussein of WMDs and work towards his removal without killing civilians, including children?

Ann Arbor's homegrown Americana singer/songwriterChris Buhalis was born and raised on Detroit's east side 30 years ago, but his songs come from places you can only find if you stick out your thumb and follow fate's lead. His songs speak of real people in real situations, from Alaska's whiskey-soaked bars to the spark and steel filled auto plants of Detroit. He has toured with Ray Wylie Hubbard and shared stages with Guy Clark, David Bromberg, Chris Smither, Dave Van Ronk, Catie Curtis and Jimmy LaFave.

Where is the mention of Townes Van Zandt or Woodie Guthrie? You can count on hearing Chris doing 'Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues' (else he'll have a mob outcry) and I'm counting on Dave's 'Rattle of Your Sword' (even though I've never heard him do it out)
Shhh..don't say I told you, but Finnegan has a little playmate to watch over, which means Chris has another mouth to feed..oh..and diapers to change!

When I posted a link to the article about Primakov (former KGB) being hired as a consultant to Homeland Security, I thought at first it was an April Fool's joke. It was difficult to find anything to substantiate the article, but I was reasonably sure after searching, that there was validity. Tony at abuddhas memes found more evidence that this was no joke here: Homeland Security Projects at CSIS http://www.csis.org/hs/ under the special project: International Council on Terrorism. If you recall, Primakov said, "that he had been hired as a consultant and he was consulting on other "security" matters, an ongoing policy in various agencies of government to consistently narrow the rights of the American people and to expand the power of government. He professed not to know why, the reason for all this was, other than he admitted that "it doesn't have much to do with 'fighting terrorism.'"
Could it possibly have something to do with this? Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent and the possible implementation of Patriot Act Redux? see the draft in html Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments (FISA)

"People are sick over there already," said Dr. Doug Rokke, former director of the Army's depleted uranium (DU) project. "It's not just uranium. You've got all the complex organics and inorganics [compounds] that are released in those fires and detonations. And they're sucking this in.... You've got the whole toxic wasteland."

It's hard to smile when there's no water. It's hard to applaud when you're frightened. It's hard to say, "Thank you for liberating me," when liberation has meant that looters have ransacked everything from the grain silos to the local school, where they even took away the blackboard.
That was what I found when spending the day in Umm Qasr and its hospital, in southern Iraq. Umm Qasr was the first town liberated by coalition forces. But 20 days into the war, it is without running water, security or adequate food supplies. I went in with a Kuwaiti relief team, who, taking pity on the Iraqis, tossed out extra food from a bus window as we left. The Umm Qasr townsfolk scrambled after that food like pigeons jostling for bread crumbs in a park.

This was a scene of humiliation, not liberation. We must do better.
(...)
We are so caught up with our own story of "America's liberation of Iraq," and the Arab TV networks are so caught up with their own story of "America's occupation of Iraq," that everyone seems to have lost sight of the real lives of Iraqis.
(...)America broke Iraq; now America owns Iraq, and it owns the primary responsibility for normalizing it. If the water doesn't flow, if the food doesn't arrive, if the rains don't come and if the sun doesn't shine, it's now America's fault. We'd better get used to it, we'd better make things right, we'd better do it soon, and we'd better get all the help we can get.

Questioning whether Vice President Dick Cheney's former company has received favored treatment from the Pentagon, senior House Democrats asked Congress' investigative agency Tuesday to delve into contracts awarded Halliburton Co. over the past two years.

The Information Office of China's State Council published an article titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2002" Thursday in response to the US State Department's " Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002".
Among the findings:

Ineffective Protection of Life and Security of Person

Serious Human Rights Violation by Law Enforcement Officials

Money-driven Democracy

Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness

Women and Children are in Worrisome Situation

Deep-rooted Racial Discrimination

Blunt Violations of Human Rights in Other Countries

Double Standards in International Field of Human Rights

To be fair, I spotted a couple inaccuracies, such as the link for New Mexico taking the reader to Mexico. Regardless, it is how the US is seen in other countries. There is plenty of work to be done at home, cleaning our own yard, yet, the US seems intent on telling others what to plant in their yard without understanding the climate and growing conditions.

I know this article by George McGovern is linked on many pages, as it should be.
I was too young to vote when he was running for president but his candidacy was a point of thought and discussion (and arguments) in my home and school. My father didn't agree and didn't vote for him, but he respected and listened to my views. It was fun arguing with my father, and was a defining moment in my life. I learned then that I would always cherish my right to vote and that my views would be voiced by that one small vote.
Things have come around again now. It's good to hear McGovern speaking out, even if it is a limited media, as he writes:

I'm grateful to The Nation, as I was to Harper's, for giving me opportunities to write about these matters. Major newspapers, especially the Washington Post, haven't been nearly as receptive.

He also writes:

I had thought after that horrible tragedy--sold to the American people by our policy-makers as a mission of freedom and mercy--that we never again would carry out a needless, ill-conceived invasion of another country that had done us no harm and posed no threat to our security. I was wrong in that assumption.

Lew Rockwell addresses some of the points we find confronting us, the habits of mind that we find being reflected in recent polls.
"War on this scale produces intellectual fallout, and we are all inclined to go along, unless we know the lies and their refutation."
We have to be mindful of the lies and work toward careful refutation at a time when passions burn.

These habits of mind affect the way we act. They shape national political culture. They change what we teach our young, the books we buy, the movies we watch, and the way we engage each other in our communities. Make no mistake about where the love of war takes us: straight to the demolition of civilization itself. War is no greater an achievement than any other act of destruction and killing. It represents the unleashing of the basest impulse in man.

War is a great achievement

Dissidents help the enemy.

My country, right or wrong

We are the government.

Believe the government

Pray for our soldiers, not theirs.

We have all been faced with the 'You must support the president" argument lately. It seems that what applied when Clinton was in office, somehow has no bearing on any opinions now. Atrios has a collection of quotes by vocal conservatives that weren't supportive of Clinton . Points of refutation.

I've been thinking along these lines myself.. To see mass quarantine, and hysteria for an illness that behaves much like the flu and has killed less people than the flu, and to see travel warnings and restrictions placed on major universities, has to make one wonder. What exactly prompts social experiments of this type?

Having been well-trained in media health promotion and persuasion methods from my behavioral science studies at Harvard University, I concluded that something akin to a social experiment was underway. With SARS, people were being frightened beyond reason, I realized. The classic definition of phobia was being manifested on a social, if not global, scale.

At this writing, SARS appears to have killed 54 people out of almost 1,400 afflicted according to the World Health Organization, a death rate of less than 4%. But since this only takes into account those ill enough to seek medical help, the actual ratio of deaths to infections is certainly far less. more

"The optical brightness of this gamma ray burst is about 100 times more intense than anything we've ever seen before. It's also much closer to us than all other observed bursts so we can study it in considerably more detail," said Carl W. Akerlof, an astrophysicist in the Physics Department at the University of Michigan. Akerlof is the leader of ROTSE, an international collaboration of astrophysicists using a network of telescopes specially designed to capture just this sort of event. The collaboration is headquartered at U-M and funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

a bed of thorns
the harbinger of rosebuds
littered with remnants
of rotted promises
and rumpled leafy compost
reminders of the mighty tree
struck ill
by a vicious supreme vote of lightning
exposing a gaping wound
vulnerable to further destruction
roots infiltrated with hungry termites
refreshing new growth and seasonal healing smothered
choked into complicit death by a neighboring shrub
spawning twisted vines of lies
~cyndy

The serial bully appears to lack insight into his or her behaviour and seems to be oblivious to the crassness and inappropriateness thereof; however, it is more likely that the bully knows what they are doing but elects to switch off the moral and ethical considerations by which normal people are bound. If the bully knows what they are doing, they are responsible for their behaviour and thus liable for its consequences to other people. If the bully doesn't know what they are doing, they should be suspended from duty on the grounds of diminished responsibility and the provisions of the Mental Health Act should apply. via digby

Despite stiff and unexpected Iraqi resistance, the U.S. invasion of Iraq is likely to succeed in toppling Saddam Hussein -- and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush, the Republican Party and American neoconservatives.

MICHIGAN SAYS "NO" TO WAR!35TH Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no
longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between
violence and nonviolence in this world; it s nonviolence or non-existence."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 3, 1968)

Although it took millions of people around the world to compel the Gray Lady to describe the anti-war movement as a "Second Superpower", it took only a handful of webloggers to spin the alternative meaning to manufacture sufficient PageRank to flood Google with Moore's alternative, neutered definition.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of George Orwell's birth, and the writer who best explained the power of language on politics would be amazed what can be done with the Internet.

Advancing down the road from Niniveh
Death paused a while and said 'Now listen here.
You see the names of places roundabout?
They're mine now, and I've turned them inside out.
Take Eden, further south: at dawn today
I ordered up my troops to tear away
its walls and gates so everyone can see
that gorgeous fruit which dangles from its tree.
You want it, don't you? Go and eat it then,
and lick your lips, and pick the same again.
Take Tigris and Euphrates; once they ran
through childhood-coloured slats of sand and sun.
Not any more they don't; I've filled them up
with countless different kinds of human crap.
Take Babylon, the palace sprouting flowers
which sweetened empires in their peaceful hours -
I've found a different way to scent the air:
already it's a by-word for despair.
Which leaves Baghdad - the star-tipped minarets,
the marble courts and halls, the mirage-heat.
These places, and the ancient things you know,
you won't know soon. I'm working on it now.'

It's been awhile since I had a good laugh. At least it's nice to know our defense department is really in the hands of a poet.

The UnknownAs we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

It is increasingly an Orwellian world. Up is down. White is black. Invading another country is providing for the defense of your own. And now, it appears that the use of lethal chemical weapons will be "non-lethal", if, as appears possible, so-called "non-lethal weapons" (NLW) are used by the United States in Iraq.
(...)
The use of riot control agents would, in the view of many legal and arms control experts, violate the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force in 1997. The CWC bans the use of these agents in battle, not least because they risk causing an escalation to full chemical warfare. This applies even though they can be used in civil disturbances at home.
(...)
Nonetheless, the US Marine Corps confirmed that CS gas and pepper spray had already been shipped to the Gulf. Rumsfeld testified to Congress on February 5 that Pentagon officials are fashioning rules of engagement that could allow the US military to use non-lethal agents if the US attacked Iraq.
(...)
"Calmative" gases could also be employed in Iraq. These are commonly referred to as "incapacitating agents", and have been in the news since their use in the rescue of hostages held in a Moscow theater in October 2002. Non-lethal weapons advocates called it a success as most of the hostages were rescued. But it should be pointed out that around 16 percent (120) of the hostages died from the effects of the chemical agent (as well as all of the captors, who were executed by security forces while they were comatose).

Dellinger said it was interesting to hear affirmative action argued in the shadow of ongoing war. "Seeing the racial diversity in the military on television and how they are together in Iraq may make the court more hesitant to say that race cannot be a factor in admissions," he said.

Well, that didn't take long. I think there may be an easier fix than a reformat, but I'm not up to the task. 'unmountable_boot_volume on Win XP'. She thinks it happened when she visited a chat room and bantered a bit with someone who asked if she was an American. It isn't as simple as a virus quarantine, a ban on chat rooms for her is what I recommend. I see that bans and quarantines are the recommendation of the day as a Greek Orthodox priest backs Nativity Church decision to ban Bush, supporters and, even more ominous, an international presidential quarantine. There isn't a simple fix to this disease. If he had only spent more time in the chat room...It's too late for a reformat. I recommend a completely new system.

I've been questioning why Blair has been so eager to be Bush's puppy. No explanation has ever quite jelled. Of course, no explanation has ever jelled for why our Congress signed a blank check either. That question will probably never be answered to my satisfaction. It should never have happened. Period.

I'm hoping that the Blair question will be answered soon. Bill, from thoughts of the eve of the apocalypse has pointed to a Frontline program Thursday night, (for me at 10:00 pm)., called Blair's War. Bill has a good teaser on his page, so I have hope that this will provide a believable explanation. I do wish Blair had never attempted whatever it was he was trying to accomplish, but I'm willing to hear the reasoning behind it.

What has become of American values and idealism? All swept away in this thoroughly un-American war

There is something McCarthyite about the atmosphere which has spawned this war, making Democrats too fearful to be an opposition worthy of the name and closing down national debate. And things don't get much more un-American than that. via Doug's Dynamic Drivel

I have been seeing more animosity and outright violent behavior toward anti-war people lately. It is venomous. In my town, no-war and peace signs that line the streets and storefronts have been defaced, stolen, and vandalized. I'm sure you've read the details of a certain DJ advocting a bullet through these goofballs heads, or the Gulf War vet who was beaten in a bar after he called Bush and Blair 'idiots'. The America I knew and loved has been ripped away. The article above explores our founding principles and what being an American used to mean. . Mark, at estimated prophet explores what patriotism is, and a little further down on his page he explores some of the venomous antics being played with polling by the freepers. I had no idea it was so organised, so much like a game, so utterly mindless.

I wonder how many have noticed the pat arguments put forth by the pro-war people? I'd like to collect a few. Leave some in the comments if you will. The biggie I hear is, 'this is fighting for your freedom'. Nope. My freedom is going to suffer more because of this. (take a look at the link below).

We have become seriously divided, to the point of pitting neighbor against neighbor. This will be a Bush legacy for years to come. I'm ashamed.

When I came in to work tonight, a co-worker showed me this. It was before midnight and still technically April Fools Day. I laughed. He wasn't joking. The article is actually a couple weks old, but somehow I missed it. I feel much better knowing that the former head of the KGB (the secret police of the former Soviet Union), General Yevgeni Primakov, has been hired as a consultant by the US Department of Homeland Security. Don't you? We will be controlled by the experts of social control. Primakov even finds it funny.

When the NICA (National Identity Card Act) gets passed, the Posse Comitatus Act gets overturned, a few other pieces of legislation yet to be proffered get passed, the White House will have more control over the American people than the Kremlin had over the Russian people when Stalin was alive. He said that and then he laughed.

What Primakov finds funny are what he calls these "right wing flag wavers" that were so anti-communist and now they're supporting a state policy of internal passports.

The irony is deafening.

Old right wing farts -- turn up your hearing aids for the irony is deafening.

Primakov continued by saying that he had been hired as a consultant and he was consulting on other "security" matters, an ongoing policy in various agencies of government (some of these offices haven't even been created yet) to consistently narrow the rights of the American people and to expand the power of government. He professed not to know why, the reason for all this was, other than he admitted that "it doesn't have much to do with 'fighting terrorism.'" more

Seeing the Forest has a great post today about Why I Am Not A Green. Please read it.
I have put up a page written by Tom Ness, a Green who ran for senator in Michigan. Dangerous Fantasies -- And Our Progressive Future. As seeingtheforest says, 'The Greens should be fighting alongside those who share their overall goals, not assisting those who want to destroy everything the Greens say they stand for.

Tom Ness, who had the fortitude to stick his feet in the fire and give his candidacy as a Green a hard fight, agrees, "Greens and Prog Dems have stupidly gone to blows over the very thing which should unite us. It is nothing more than our lazy yielding to a flawed electoral system which makes enemies out of natural allies. We are fools when we allow a simple mechanism of human design to master us, distort our vision so friend appears as foe, and ultimately deny us our collective destiny."Now is NOT the time to rock the boat.

The sorry girl above comes from Tish at fatshadow, who got it from Ampersand who got it from..who got it from.. who got it from?? Hey it's a diversion, but let's see where it goes, feel free to grab it from me with a right-click. The sentiment fits my mood.

The federal government, if it used an accounting method preferred by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, would have turned in a deficit of $365 billion in 2002, twice as big as the official budget deficit number for last year: $158 billion.
The larger figure, included in a Treasury report yesterday, is based on a method of accounting in which expenses are booked when they are incurred, not when payments are made....

"Accrual-based accounts would lay out more clearly the true costs and benefits of changes to various taxes and outlay programs and facilitate the development of a broad budget strategy," Greenspan told Congress in February...

(...)The government has put out reports on its financial status based on the accrual method since 1998, following up on a directive by Congress....

Would someone care to enlighten me? How could the official deficit be deemed 'official' if there was a 1998 directive to use the accrual method? Is a congressional directive non-binding? Does this smell like Enron?

All humans share a desire for meaning, community, and purpose. Some find it in love, hope, generosity, compassion, and a sense of spiritual connection to the whole of life. Others seem to find it in fear, despair, cynicism, hatred, violence, greed, and material indulgence. Belief that community will ultimately prevail is grounded in the premise that for the vast majority of people a life of love, hope, generosity, compassion and spiritual connection is more attractive than a life of ruthless competition, fear, violence, and hate -- and that it is within our individual and collective means to consciously choose the former.